Question

What is an inherited trait? Give an example.

Answer 1

Heredity, also called biological inheritance, is the transition from parents to their offspring of characteristics; the offspring cells or species receive their parents' genetic material either through asexual reproduction or sexual reproduction.

Complete Step by Step Answer:
A distinctive quality or feature, generally one belonging to an individual is known as a trait. A trait can be: - Acquired - Inherited
Inherited traits are the features inherited by the parents to the progeny. Some examples of inherited characteristics in humans include hair, skin, eye color, body shape, height, and susceptibility to certain diseases.
In the experiments with the pea plant, Gregor Mendel clarified the idea of inherited traits. He showed that the characteristics that are evident in the phenotype are considered dominant characteristics, while the characteristics that are not evident are known as recessive characteristics.
The inherited characteristics were clarified by Mendel by the following inheritance laws: - Law of Dominance: When two alternate forms of character are present in an organism, in the ${ F }_{ 1 }$ progeny, only one form expresses itself and is called the dominant trait, while the recessive trait is called the form that does not express itself. - Law of Segregation: In the ${ F }_{ 2 }$ generation, the alleles do not show any blending and are recovered as such, while in the ${ F }_{ 1 }$ generation one of these is not seen. - Law of Independent Assortment: When two pairs of characteristics are recombined, the segregation of one pair of characters during gamete formation is separate from the other pairs of characters.

Note:
- A person's inherited characteristics are determined by their chromosomes.
- A characteristic could be acquired, for example- the long neck of a giraffe was acquired by continuously stretching its neck to reach for leaves and then could be passed on to its offspring.
- Such attributes that were not used would gradually vanish.
- Acquired traits are the characteristics that one develops during a lifetime. These are not transferred to the offspring and thus, are not present in DNA. For example, Things learned, Things happened to the body like a fractured bone, scar, etc.
- Some traits are both inherited and acquired. For example Skin color. The actual color of the skin is inherited by the offspring from the parents and is transferred to generations. Whereas the level of tanning that a skin obtains is an acquired trait and is not inherited by the future generation. Tan is determined by the level of sun exposure.